{"id":26766,"date":"2024-03-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theorderexpert.com\/?p=26766"},"modified":"2024-03-18T18:33:50","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T22:33:50","slug":"need-help-with-daily-planning-heres-how-to-effectively-plan-your-day-at-the-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theorderexpert.com\/need-help-with-daily-planning-heres-how-to-effectively-plan-your-day-at-the-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Need Help with Daily Planning? Here’s How to Effectively Plan Your Day at the Office"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Woman<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Daily planning is a must in any business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if you find yourself regularly avoiding this crucial daily action, you may need to change your planning approach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, you may find yourself unwittingly falling behind schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my work as a productivity consultant<\/a> and time management coach<\/a>, I’m often asked, “How do I effectively plan my day?” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there’s no shortage of solutions to this question, we can streamline our focus on how we go about the daily planning process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s a simple six-step method you can follow to make the daily planning process a bit easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plan your day in advance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Where possible, plan tomorrow’s day the previous afternoon or evening. This way, you’ll be ready to hit the ground running in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way to go about this is to incorporate this task into your workday so it’s a built-in feature of your daily schedule. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can add some planning time into the latter part of your work day. Review the current status of projects<\/a> and make plans for the following day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what if you’re unable to plan<\/a> your day in advance? Plan your day first thing in the morning before you tackle any other projects, assignments, or tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that you know when to plan, how should you go about planning your work? Follow this simple review process to stay on top of things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Review upcoming meetings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This includes any meetings and appointments<\/a> scheduled for the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take care to note any details surrounding the appointment; be it travel to an external location, an on-site engagement, or a video or phone call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next step is to adequately prepare for upcoming meetings<\/a>. For instance, do you need to print an agenda, gather physical materials, jot down questions, or prepare presentation slides?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideally, you should have prepared a few of these items in advance. You’re simply finalizing any last-minute arrangements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Identify current work tasks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

These include ongoing project tasks and to-dos that you must personally complete yourself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, write down the tasks that require your direct input, evaluation, skills, or management. Next, write down tasks that must be delegated to others (we’ll get to this in just a moment).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you’ve identified tasks, schedule time in your day to work on these tasks just as you would any other appointment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You’ll know exactly which tasks you need to work on and when.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Send and follow up with requests<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You know all those work-related items you’ve requested from a vendor, partner, colleague, or client? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s important to acknowledge and address these items sooner rather than later so others have time to respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look back in your calendar<\/a> or to-do lists from the past several days. Identify any outstanding, incomplete, or unfinished tasks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then take a few moments to communicate by phone, email, text, or message service, to send out requests or follow up with open items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delegate tasks to others as needed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Assigning tasks to others is a key part of the daily planning process. Try to delegate<\/a> tasks as soon as possible during the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This should be done as soon as you finish your planning for the day. Avoid sitting on to-be-delegated tasks as this can create workflow logjams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You should also plan to efficiently delegate tasks. Aim to provide others with at least three to five tasks at a time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The benefit of doing this is that you won’t have to break up the flow of your schedule providing tasks piecemeal to others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

People will receive their assignments<\/a> and will have the time and space to effectively complete tasks throughout the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acknowledge real-time issues and concerns<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, it’s important to deal with the inevitable real-time issues, challenges, and concerns that come up with running a business. While we can’t escape these situations, we can plan for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naming real-time issues can be helpful because it helps your mind identify and containerize the issue at hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saying something along the lines of “Emergency server maintenance issue” rather than “That IT thing I have to deal with” is clearer and more focused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To stay on top of these types of issues, jot down times for yourself in your schedule<\/a> to check on the status of these items. It’s a simple way for you to stay up-to-date and current in your work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn the keys to daily planning <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Successful daily planning at the office requires focus, attention, and care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My time management guide<\/a> will teach you how to review your schedule, plan appointments, and organize projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want me to help you manage your time at work and at home so you get things done and feel in control, then check out my time management coaching<\/a> services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How about you? Which of these daily planning steps are you going to give more attention to this week? Join the conversation and leave a comment below<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article previously appeared on Inc.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daily planning is a must in any business. But if you find yourself regularly avoiding this crucial daily action, you may need to change your planning approach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[325],"tags":[500,355,142,363,62,364,110,72,881,130],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theorderexpert.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26766"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theorderexpert.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theorderexpert.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theorderexpert.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theorderexpert.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26766"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.theorderexpert.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26771,"href":"https:\/\/www.theorderexpert.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26766\/revisions\/26771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theorderexpert.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theorderexpert.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theorderexpert.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theorderexpert.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}